Catholic Snowflakes {Meditating on Jesus' Quiet Life}

From the feast day of Jesus Baptism to Candlemas (The Presentation) I often reflect on Jesus' "quiet life". Jesus "quiet life" is the time when Jesus was a child growing into a man; a time when He was helping St. Joseph build furniture (and probably got many splinters); a time when He helped His mother with chores around the house; a time when He was learning to read and write; a time when He grieved for the loss of His foster-father; and a time when He was content in being here on the earth and living a simple life.

Imagine the great, almighty, and all-powerful God being content with no drama or prestige for 30 years. He didn't nag his mother and beg her to go out preaching. He waited for her to give Him the okay before He left home and began His mission. He was content to just live a quiet life. That's humility!

Sadly, we are often very discontented living in the background. We want to be seen, and we have such a hard time being content with the things of a simple life. We are always looking for something more - something greater! Jesus calls us to the same contented, humility that He had, and that can be very hard for us. We what to be seen and appreciated. Jesus and His thirty hidden years can show us what we are meant to strive for.

I often think of Jesus "quiet life" on snowy days. If you have ever sat outside on a snowy day you hear nothing. No, not a thing -no birds, no wind, no cars (unless you are in a city) - just the gentle, soft, sound of snow hitting the ground. The silence is amazing and so peaceful. So with these two topics in mind, my kids and I created snowflakes that have images of Jesus' "quiet life" depicted on each.

My kids cut out the images and glued one to the center of each snowflake. Then they used glitter glue to decorate the snowflake and around the image. Once they were dry we added a hook.

We hung our snowflakes on our "seasonal tree", which has a rotating and ever changing supply of decorations including our Saint Medals, Mary flowers, St. Valentine Hearts, Lenten sacrifice crosses, Assumption decor, and more. We really do enjoy our little "tree"! It's an easy way to decorate for each season and it allows each of our kids to help create the decorations. So it's a joint family effort as the liturgical year slips by.

Our "tree" was created by adding a few flat clear marbles to the bottom of a mason jar. Then we collected sticks and arranged them in the jar to form a tree. It works well, but we need to replace the branches about once a year.

If you are looking for more Catholic snow fun, you might like the Our Lady of Snows posts from a few years ago: Click here to see a list of these ideas.

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comments:

Wow, great ideas here!I don't remember your snow posts from the past. So glad you shared them again. Love the crystal craft too. I'm making a note to buy borax this weekend when I'm out doing errands!We are in the midst of a Robert Frost study and when we did his Stopping by Woods poem, one activity was creating a "snowy " collage...I'll be doing a post for my art Fridays, but I really want to do one or two of your projects here as well before moving on to another poet now! Although, I guess it's "ok" to do this as fun...or as you mention as a reminder of the period of quiet of Jesus's life.

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